The present invention relates to communications network traffic flow, and, more particularly, to synchronization of controllers in distributed controller environments.
Many enterprises have large and sophisticated geographically dispersed networks. These large networks include switches, routers, controllers and other networked devices to support the flow of data across the network. Data centers use multiple controllers to manage data forwarding units (such as switches, routers, etc.) to ensure a smooth flow of data across networks within the enterprise. Each controller manages a data forwarding unit of a particular data center to avoid impacts on latency. Such a distribution of controllers may be referred to as a distributed controller environment.
In a distributed controller environment, multiple controllers are involved in managing flow entries associated with the data forwarding units. Typically, one set of data forwarding units is assigned one or more controllers (also referred to as logical controllers). The logical controllers for different sets of data forwarding units synchronize flow entries among each other before adding the flow entry to the data forwarding units. Such proactive synchronization can lead to additional network traffic.
Proactive synchronization also can result in an error due to permanent loss of flow entry because of the network traffic. Further, storage of flow entries for regular synchronization is taxing on network resources. Furthermore, pro-active synchronization may cause delay in synchronizing flow details with multiple controllers, thereby creating latency problems in network traffic management.
Therefore, there is a need for more efficient management of data forwarding units in a distributed controller network.